Tag: Willie Nelson

Wayne Carson and “Always on My Mind”

Mind Wayne Carson, who wrote songs such as “Always on My Mind,” passed away on Monday, July 20, 2015. The 72-year-old Carson, who was born with the name Wayne Carson Head, had been suffering a number of health problems.

Carson wrote or co-wrote a number of great songs such as “The Letter,” which was a hit for The Box Tops and for Joe Cocker, and “She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles),” which was a hit in 1975 for Gary Stewart. But his song “Always on My Mind,” for most people, is the first song that will come to mind.

Johnny Christopher and Mark James, who helped with the bridge of the song, are listed as co-writers, but Carson started writing “Always on My Mind” and finished much of it himself. Since then, more than 300 people have recorded “Always on My Mind,” including a hit version by Willie Nelson in 1982.

Many people first heard “Always on My Mind” from Elvis Presley, who recorded the song on March 29, 1972 as his marriage to Priscilla Presley was falling apart. Presley recorded several excellent songs that capture the anguish he felt during the time, but “Always on My Mind” stands out. Even though he did not write the songs, Presley knew how to tap into his own emotions to reach the depths of a song’s lyrics.

While “Always on My Mind” dwells on a common concept of heartbreak, the lyrics strip bare every ounce of pain in the opening lines of regret. Carson recognized that sometimes the worst regret is not for things that we have done but for things that we did not do.

Maybe I didn’t treat you,
Quite as good as I should have;
Maybe I didn’t love you,
Quite as often as I could have;
Little things I should have said and done,
I just never took the time.
You were always on my mind.

The greatness of the song is revealed by the fact that two of our greatest interpreters of songs — Nelson and Presley — gave moving renditions of “Always on My Mind.” Today, we mourn the loss of Wayne Carson while thanking him for putting beautiful words and music together that help capture the human condition.

What is your favorite version of “Always on My Mind”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Willie and Merle Are “Missing Ol’ Johnny Cash”

    Willie and Merle

    Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard have teamed up to release the new album Django And Jimmie (2015). The two men, who created country gold with the similarly named 1983 album Pancho & Lefty, feature a range of styles on their new album, incorporating some humor along the way with songs like “It’s All Going to Pot” and “Missing Ol’ Johnny Cash.”

    Check out this video about the making of “Missing Ol’ Johnny Cash,” a song that also features help from Bobby Bare.

    Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard’s Django and Jimmie hits stores on June 2, and for a short time you can give it a streaming listen on NPR First Listen. The title song from the album celebrates guitarist Django Reinhardt and country music legend Jimmie Rodgers.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Songs About Homelessness

    Homeless Songs

    Music can address societal issues in different ways. Sometimes a song will tackle a big issue head on.  But more often than not, issues are addressed through personal stories or observations. One important societal issue that occasionally appears in popular song is the problem that so many of our fellow humans live without a home. Below are some examples of some songs that address homelessness to varying degrees.

    In 2011, singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran released ‘The A Team’ as the lead single of his first album +. Sheeran wrote the song about a prostitute addicted to crack cocaine after he visited a homeless shelter.

    “Ain’t Got No Home” is a folk song that was made popular by Woody Guthrie: “Just a wandrin’ worker, I go from town to town. / And the police make it hard wherever I may go / And I ain’t got no home in this world anymore.”

    In this video, Rosanne Cash performs “I Ain’t Got No Home”.

    Greg Trooper’s “They Call Me Hank” is about a homeless man named Bill. The song appeared on Trooper’s album Upside-Down Town.

    Here Trooper performs the song at Music City Roots live from the Loveless Cafe in June 2014.

    One of the more famous songs about homelessness is “Another Day in Paradise” by Phil Collins. The song appeared on his 1989 hit album But Seriously, where the singer sees a man avoiding a homeless person.

    Collins asks us to think twice about living another day in paradise, but a lot of critics thought that the song seemed disingenuous coming from someone as rich as Collins.

    The great songwriter Guy Clark recorded a song called “Homeless.” The song appears on Clark’s 2006 album The Dark.

    Like several other songs by Clark, he talks us through much of the story with a memorable chorus.

    Finally, another famous song that is about a homeless person is the Christmas song “Pretty Paper,” which was a hit in an excellent recording by Roy Orbison. The song about a person who in the midst of holiday shopping sees a homeless person was written by a young songwriter who would later go on to have a pretty successful career himself.

    So here is that songwriter, Willie Nelson, singing his version of the song he wrote.

    Other songs with homelessness themes include Jethro Tull’s “Aqualung,” Ralph McTell’s “Streets of London,” and “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)” by Crystal Waters.

    Music, of course, cannot solve problems but it can help educate us. More than 60,000 people sleep in homeless shelters each night in New York City alone. Homelessness continues to be a problem across the U.S., and in particular, the number of homeless LGBT youth on the streets continues to rise due to a lack of support for them.

    A number of organizations around the country work to help the homeless, and this website lists a number of ways that you can help the homeless (besides writing a song).

    What other songs are there about homelessness? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    The Saga of Willie Nelson’s Guitar

    Willie Nelson Trigger

    This short 12-minute film from Rolling Stone tells the story of Willie Nelson’s famous guiar, Trigger. In The Tale of Trigger, Nelson recounts how he acquired the guitar, why he named it “Trigger” (after Roy Rogers’s horse, of course), and how he started collecting autographs on it. The video follows the important role that the Martin N-20 acoustic guitar played in his career.

    One of my favorite parts of my favorite Willie Nelson’s albums is his recognizable guitar sound. Now, The Tale of Trigger tells us a little more about the five-decade relationship involving one of the most important guitars in country music history. Check it out.

    What is your favorite Trigger appearance? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Willie and Bobbie Nelson: “Who’ll Buy My Memories?”

    December Day Nelson
    Willie Nelson is releasing a new album, December Day, which features Nelson working with his sister Bobbie Nelson on a mix of songs that includes covers, classics, deep cuts, and new songs. One of the songs on the album is “Who’ll Buy My Memories?” a song referencing the IRS’s seizure of Nelson’s property for back taxes, although it also is a universal song about aging. The song first appeared on Nelson’s The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories?

    Check out the video for the new version of “Who’ll Buy My Memories?”

    December Day: Willie’s Stash, Vol. 1 will be released December 2. In the video below, Willie and Bobbie Nelson talk more about the album.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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